Children Rescued From Fire Hero Fights Fumes From Melted Plastic

COOPER CITY -- As flames danced on the kitchen stove of the two-story stucco house, and dense smoke poured from a pot of melted plastic baby bottles on Tuesday, two children struggled to breathe.

Their mother, who was outside, unsuccessfully tried to coax her son to unlock the front door.

Gary Karp, 35, of Sunrise, kicked in a dining room window in the house in the 8700 block of SW 56th Place and saved the children`s lives. Then he extinguished the fire with a towel and called 911 emergency for help.

``I`ll tell you, he was a hero,`` said the children`s father, Michael Karasik, 38. ``Had it been 10 or 15 more minutes, I might not have kids now.``

Two-month-old Shaina was taken to Pembroke Pines Hospital, where she was treated for smoke inhalation and kept overnight for observation. Her brother Jason, 2, was treated and released.

Both children had traces of carbon monoxide in their blood, their father said.

``The neighbor did a good job of getting the children out,`` Cooper City Fire Chief Russell Brown said. ``It possibly could have been fatal for the (baby). The smoke was very, very heavy because of the melted, burnt plastic and the laminated kitchen cabinets.``

The fire caused about $200 worth of damage to the kitchen, Brown said.

Jason Karasik had locked the door on Tuesday afternoon when his mother went outside to check her mailbox.

When her son refused to let her back in the house, Sandra Karasik called Karp, who works with her husband at Minolta Business Systems in North Miami.

``I was going hysterical. I didn`t remember the pot on the stove,`` she said. ``I wanted to come in and see if the baby was OK.``

Karasik was unaware that a fire had started in her kitchen.

Karp, who alerted Karasik`s husband in South Miami, arrived 20 minutes later to help out.

Karp said he knocked out a 4-by-6-foot window with his shoe, crawled inside and carried the children out.

``I don`t know how I put out the fire, but I did. I think I grabbed a towel,`` Karp said. ``I know my shirt was all black when I got out.``

Cooper City firefighters arrived at 4:15 p.m., minutes after Karp called for help on his cellular phone.

``It just worked out,`` said Karp, a former Miami paramedic who has delivered 13 babies, including his own daughter four years ago. ``I didn`t go over there expecting to find anything wrong. It was like out of a movie.``